This is the 4th Scientific Meeting of the Greek DOCOMOMO.
The modern spirit was the most significant force in the re-orientation of architecture and art throughout Europe in the nineteen twenties and thirties. Aspects of the modern in Athens between the wars formed meetings points for the creative forces of the time with a social reality that sought to “modernise” without renouncing history and traditions. The works produced were in the very least interesting and often exceptional, rendering the years between the wars one of the most dynamic periods of the previous century. Middle-class apartment buildings in the centre of Athens and smaller single family homes in the suburbs, simple cubic schools in every neighbourhood and functional social welfare buildings: sanatoria, hospitals, children's playgrounds – all provided, alongside art and discourse, the measure of an overall attempt that survives limping to our days. We keep looking back to that era because we believe that there is much more it can tell us, more of what we already know, mainly now that we are re-thinking the management of our cultural heritage. The demand for innovation is always current, today as ever, in the fields of architecture and artistic creativity, while ever-increasing interest in the interwar years by the public media demands that we discuss this era once more, utilising more mature discourse.
Within the framework of the 4th Scientific Meeting “Workbooks of the Modern” 03 and 04 will be presented to the public. These contain the texts of the scientific meetings organised in Patras entitled East and West in Modern Architecture and in Xanthi entitled Modernism and architectural education (futura publications).
This event will be organised by Maro Kardamitsi-Adami, Niki Loïzidi, Alcestis Rodi and Panagiotis Tournikiotis.